


three

by springhibiscus



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Gen, No Romance, Not Beta Read, Post-Time Skip, Time Travel, War, We Die Like Men, no romance allowed in MY angst fic. my city now, pre-release
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 22:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19935460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springhibiscus/pseuds/springhibiscus
Summary: The Divine Pulse is a mysterious thing.





	three

**Author's Note:**

> it's like 2AM here, so 3 days to go till release! yes my eyes are dying but yknow what, my hype for Three Houses isn't, so here we are.

One.

The first time, Byleth chooses the Black Eagles. She sees students from the other houses often, occasionally helping them through tutoring or extra lessons when they need it. But there are three constants in her life, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude, banding together to create a trio of sorts. They find every opportunity to talk to her, to get her opinion on (trivial) matters, or to just hang around and follow her like ducklings. Though the time they spend with her could definitely be spent better— studying for exams, for instance — she enjoys passing her free time with the trio.

Teaching at the Academy passes by like a dream. Swordplay and sparring and mock battles. History and magic and revering the Goddess. The year flashes by, and all Byleth has left is memories and a promise, nothing tangible.

The first time, Byleth sides with the Empire in the bloody three way war that erupts across Fodlan five years after she became a teacher. Edelgard is frustrated at her, rightfully angry that the professor she had been so close to had abandoned her for five years. But a part of the Emperor is so, so relieved that she finds it hard to stay mad.

Dimitri and his troops must be stopped at any cost. He's out of control, mad with power, gone off the deep end. For someone who was once known for being so chivalrous and noble, he kills the Empire and the Alliance’s soldiers like no other.

And when the two of them, Byleth and Edelgard, the wonder teacher and student duo, have the former leader of the Blue Lions cornered at last, there is no sense of justice being delivered. Just a bloody king and Byleth’s heart twisting and insisting  _ something isn't right here. _

“I want to speak to him.” she quietly tells Edelgard, who nods slightly after some hesitation.

Because she cannot trust herself to do it, Byleth steps back and lets Edelgard deliver the killing blow. 

Edelgard quickly makes her exit after sealing Dimitri’s doom, to bring the good news, granting Byleth’s request and leaving her one last opportunity to speak with the king himself. Before the end.

“I’m sorry,” Byleth finds herself saying. Apologizing to the enemy, especially to  _ Dimitri _ , whose list of crimes are far from short— she is out of her mind.

“What… for?” Dimitri rasps. “You’ll be revered ao hero… I knew you had it in you.” he laughs painfully, and Byleth’s heart shatters just a little bit more.

“Why did you do it?” she croaks out. “Why did you start this war?”

“Someone… must stop the cycle of the strong trampling the weak. If I must become the antagonist to reach that goal… then so be it.”

“...Wasn’t there any other way?”

“If there was… maybe I'll find it in another life…”

Byleth counts the following silence with the beat of her heart. 

“...Remember me.” Dimitri says at last. 

“I promise.” Byleth answers, and when the Blue Lion takes his last breath, Byleth’s vision lurches. Shutting her eyes, she catches a glimpse of Sothis sitting on her stone throne, and her veins hum with the familiar thrum of supernatural power.

The Divine Pulse fires off.

* * *

She wakes up in her room at the Academy, though her room is sparsely decorated, a stark difference from what she remembers. A quick glance at the mirror by her closet reveals that her hair is no longer the pale green it had turned at the start of the war.

_ Goddess. The Divine Pulse can send me back more than five years’ time? _

With that, Byleth nervously sets to get ready for the day, unsure of what month or day it is. Likely early into the school year, judging on how empty her quarters are, but she had kept her room almost empty for  _ months _ .

“Good morning!” Manuela greets her in the hallway. “Have you decided which house you'd like to teach yet?”

“I— what?” Byleth blurts out.

Manuela smiles a little worriedly. “Well, remember that we expect your decision by the end of the day. First term starts next week, and we need to do some basic teaching drills with you to make sure you’re properly prepared…”

“I’ve already made my decision,” Byleth says impulsively, heart thudding in her chest. A chance to redo the damage of the war. She had to make it count.

“I’d like to teach the Blue Lions.”

* * *

Two.

The second time, she sides with the Blue Lions. Despite her best efforts in the academy days, the war still happens. Maybe it’s not a lack of support that changes Dimitri into a mass executioner, but the fact that Byleth goes missing in between graduation and the class reunion.

But there wasn't much she could do about  _ that _ either. Byleth’s disappearance is scripted, she's sure, since trying to fight off the sleepiness post-graduation that had overtaken her in the first timeline as well wasn't at all successful.

( _ Where have you been? _ Sylvain asks her casually when she arrives at the start of a strategy meeting, and Byleth freezes. Where was she five minutes or five  _ years  _ ago?)

It doesn't become any easier to fight the students of the either houses, either. Especially those who were Black Eagles.

Especially Edelgard.

The long term plan Dimitri has to fight the war is straightforward. Capture the Empire and the Alliance’s capitals, or their leaders. Originally the proposed plan had been to lay waste to the other countries’ land and force a surrender, but Dimitri has some of his heart left. Or maybe he's just weak for Byleth, because even at the first strategy meeting she had attended after her hazy five year slumber, she had already been opposed to hurting civilians. Even more so against the mere  _ thought _ of killing Edelgard and Claude.

There's few things left in this world that Dimitri cares about, so he lets Byleth have this one. And if he's being honest, he has a lot of doubts about playing the role of cold-hearted conqueror. Unfortunately, it’s much too late for that.

Months pass before Faerghus’ army is able to make their way through Empire and strike. Edelgard (a coward or not?) avoids all of the fights they pick, locking herself away in her ornate castle until they force her to join the fray.

And when they meet on the battlefield, Byleth feels worse than she's ever felt, both timelines combined.

“How can you side with  _ him?! _ ” Edelgard spits. When did she come into the possession of the Sword of Seiros? “Don’t you care about the abominable crimes he's committed? What he's done is unforgivable! Why do you fight and help him continue to do deplorable things?!”

(She’s trying to guilt her into defecting, Byleth realizes quickly, and she can understand why Edelgard would want that. She knows Dimitri’s weaknesses, his troops’ formations, their plans. And Edelgard is incredibly good at guilt-tripping. And the worst thing is that beside her, Dimitri is giving off a nervous buzz like he thinks she might actually do it.)

“Please, Teacher,” the Emperor says, her tone turning less harsh. “Help me bring him to justice.” 

Edelgard lowers her sword, offering a hand, and a chill runs down Byleth’s spine.

( _ Just like the first timeline _ .)

Byleth takes a step back. “I wouldn't be fighting if I wasn't confident in what I’ve chosen.”

Edelgard nods grimly and lifts her blade again. “I figured as much. You're just the same as ever, Teacher… Though this pains me so, draw your sword.”

Byleth reaches for the Sword of the Creator just as a shining red arrow sinks into Edelgard’s neck, followed by three more. Edelgard crumples to the ground.

“Is that…!” Dimitri startles, and Byleth’s heartbeat shudders to a sudden stop. Her hands are shaking.

Byleth whips her head around to the direction the arrow came from, heart sinking. Soldiers accented in yellow.

The Alliance has arrived.

“Thanks for distracting her, Teach!” Claude calls from the front of the formation, smile not exactly reaching his eyes. “One target down… mind if I go after that king of yours next?”

“Stay here,” Dimitri mutters, hefting his lance, “I’ll get him.”

“He has a ranged weapon. He'll hit you before you can ‘ _ get him _ ’. He has an advantage in numbers. We should keep him talking,” Byleth reasons, almost pleading.

“I know you're soft on former students of the Academy, but he's not the same person as he was all those years ago. People change. And we have a war to win.” Faintly, in the background, she hears Edelgard croak out something indistinct. And Byleth can't stop the part of her that still cares for Edelgard from pulling her toward the dying Emperor.

“Don’t,” she mutters, head spinning. “Dimitri.  _ Don’t. _ ” He ignores her to yell something (likely brash) at Claude. She doesn't process his words because what matters to her now is Edelgard. Her legs move sluggishly towards the Emperor, no, just a bloody young woman she had known what felt like a lifetime ago. Claude and Dimitri her go.

(She's too late. She can't save Edelgard. She probably can't save Claude or even Dimitri, at this point.)

All that remains for her is Dimitri throwing his relic lance at Claude like a javelin, with deadly accuracy, and Claude loosing a barrage of arrows sure to hit their mark.

Byleth doesn’t wait to hear the crunch of bone or the sound of arrows striking skin.

She'll get it right next time, she tells herself. And by the Goddess does she hope that will prove to be true.

The Divine Pulse hums, and the world returns to peaceful days.

* * *

Three.

Third time’s the charm, or so the old saying goes. But the third timeline goes as well as the first two, which is to say, not.

She picks the Golden Deer, this time. Byleth isn't exactly surprised that there's much more to Claude than meets the eye. It takes months of work before she is able to make a dent in Claude’s “mask” of sorts.

But it’s worth it. She begins to see a side to him that is less smiles and more serious. And maybe more vulnerable. Behind his half-joking schemes and relaxed flattery is a boy who cannot bring himself to trust. Just a boy.

She hates that she has to leave him alone and without warning during the long five year gap between graduation and the reunion. But she must, and when she returns from her slumber, the mask is back.

(He isn't quite ready to believe that the teacher he’d thought dead for five years is back, and Byleth can't blame him. But time is short, so for now, she’d rather focus on the war.)

Siding with the Alliance presents a completely different problem than before. Though Claude is the leader of the Alliance, none of its lords actually have to fully listen to him. And since the war will likely be long and brutal, the only people willing to take up arms are those who live along the border, leaving the Alliance with only about half of its military potential.

While the Empire and Faerghus are busy fighting amongst themselves, Byleth and the rest of the Golden Deer travel to the other states in the Alliance, hoping to convince them to join them, while fighting off bandits and the terrifying beasts Byleth remembers fighting during their academy days.

And by the  _ Goddess _ are they as horrifying as ever.

Left alone, demonic beasts are disasters waiting to happen. They are provoked easily, and can cause a multitude of damage and death to anyone or anything that mildly upsets it. Fighting them was necessary to prevent future problems, but require full participation from every soldier. And even still, the odds were more than likely that they'd lose some, given the nature of the beasts.

Travelling to the Alliance and Adrestian border, they come across a larger and extremely hostile beast, with a strange aura of power, like something distantly familiar to Byleth.

“Get into pairs, and watch each others’ backs,” she warns at the start of the battle. “It would be best if we could split up with each group having someone who knows healing magic, in case of any emergencies. Make sure to protect your healers.”

The rest of the Deer split off quickly, with Marianne and Lorenz pairing off, Ignatz serving as the healer for Raphael, and Hilda joining Leonie and Lysithea so she could “do less work”, leaving just Byleth and an apprehensive Claude.

They work seamlessly together during the lengthy fight, with Byleth slashing at the beast from afar using the Sword of the Creator’s whip form, and with Claude carefully shooting arrows into the weak points of it’s armour. 

Though extremely dangerous to fight, demonic beasts are easy to predict. They tend to focus on one target, usually the one who hit it last. Anyone willing to be the “shield” of sorts had to be prepared to weather both physical and magical damage. And because Byleth has always hated to see her students, former or not, get hurt as part of the battle plan, she would take up that risky mantle.

About halfway through the battle, the beast turns on Claude, a faint crest shining behind it and dark purple smoke starting to gather around its mouth and legs.

(Something is wrong.)

It’s not supposed to go for Claude.

And before her mind can process what she's doing, she's shoving Claude out of the way, and taking the full brunt of the dark mass of magic coming their way.

In hindsight, it probably would've been easier to use the Divine Pulse, Byleth realizes as her vision rapidly fades to black. Sometimes she’s too impulsive for her own good.

* * *

She awakens in the infirmary tent. Her ribs ache, expected since that's where she got hit, but other than that, she seems to be okay. Mentally, she makes a note to thank whoever cast the healing magic on her. 

“Hey, Teach,” Claude mumbles in greeting, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “How do you feel?”

“Fine. Did you kill the beast?” 

The gold-clad man beside her shakes his head. “No, unfortunately… I kinda lost it after you got hit, so we let it escape. Sorry, my bad.” he adds, chuckling half-heartedly.

“That’s okay. We might have to go back and finish it off, though. You know how dangerous they are.”

“...Not as dangerous as my dashing good looks are,” he jokes, and Byleth smiles, and lets out a laugh, with Claude quickly joining in.

Claude falls silent for a moment.

“I missed this.” he says simply. Another pause.

“I did too.” Byleth replies at last.

“Did you at least get a lot of rest from your five year nap?”

Byleth swats Claude's arm with her hand in mock annoyance. “Not really. I wouldn't recommend it.”

“Well, I’m glad you're back. Just let me know the next time you plan to disappear for half a decade, ‘kay Teach?”

* * *

The Alliance tries to stay neutral throughout the war, but Faerghus quickly drags the Alliance into the fray by diverting its troops away from the Empire, and to the east. While Byleth is recovering from the demonic beast incident, Claude receives news from Daphnel that Faerghus troops have invaded from the border, aiming to reach the capital.

And the King is apparently leading the charge. Not good. 

As soon as Byleth recovers enough, the Golden Deer head north, hoping to intercept the enemy before the Capital is taken.

Drawing near to the forested west side of Riegan, Claude and Byleth lead the Alliance’s troops, quite a distance ahead of the rest.

The royal blue of Faerghus’ troops is just visible among the trees, heading towards them.

“By the time everyone else catches up, they'll probably be out of striking distance,” Byleth mutters worriedly. “We could wait for backup, or try to fight them now, which would definitely not end well.”

“Okay, idea,” Claude starts, “I’ll draw his attention to me with a couple of arrows, while you go around and strike from the back.”

Byleth freezes up, remembering the last timeline. “He could just throw his lance at you.”

Claude frowns. “That’s not really his style, I think.”

“If you say so, but he could definitely do it… Be careful. Stay on guard.”

“Got it, Teach,” Claude grins and salutes her, Byleth rolling her eyes in response. “Good luck.”

She creeps around to the other side of the path, getting into position. She readies her sword, snapping the Sword of the Creator into its whip form, careful not to make much noise. Claude finds her from his spot across the path from her, and nods as Faerghus’ troops draw just into her field of view.

The sight of Dimitri alone is enough to freeze her in place. 

_ Move, move, move, _ she urges herself,  _ Why can’t I move? _

From her spot amongst the foliage, she is rewarded with a perfect view of Dimitri shrugging off Claude’s arrows, and his lance moving forward, straight towards Claude, which at such close range will be fatal—

She doesn't hear herself scream. Just wind rustling and the Divine Pulse pulling her back in time.

* * *

“How much longer are you going to keep trying?” Sothis queries, peering at Byleth with those glowing green eyes. A shiver runs through Byleth’s body. The place where Sothis resides in her mind is much more chilly than she ever remembers it being.

“You cannot save everyone. You know that by now, do you not?”

“Of course I know,” the professor concedes, “But that can't stop me from finding a way. And as long as I have this power, I  _ must _ try. I refuse to pick and choose which of my students are allowed to live and which must die in the name of peace.”

Sothis takes another thoughtful look at her before stepping back, settling onto her stone throne again, and sighing.

“You mortals are so stubborn,” she mutters, fending off a yawn. “But I suppose that's what makes your lives so interesting.” Another pause.

“Very well. Let’s start the game again, shall we?”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! I'm so tired this probably didn't make much sense , hahaha... unless...? anyways, I love writing about games with features like new game+ / time rewind because there's so much potential... and to be honest, if Divine Pulse isn't used like how I wrote it, well then, instys... why can't we turn back time... a LOT of it ?? 
> 
> Feel free to skip the rest of this, In going to dump my pre-release theories here since I probably won't finish anything before release.
> 
> It's in this fic (somewhat), but i HC that Byleth was asleep during the time skip. I was writing a fic before this explaining it (After graduation Byleth starts feeling rlly tired and Sothis convinces her to go find a ruin, which is the same inside as the place where Sothis lives in her mind. And then she falls asleep and wakes up in time for the reunion, while Sothis is like 'haha... oops.") but my inspiration fizzled out.
> 
> Byleth's only change from the five years is their hair and eyes changing colours. Same hair, same clothes. everything. Like they've just frozen in time. So if Byleth didn't stay preserved by sleeping (with plot magic) then I think that maybe by having Sothis' power they've stopped aging or just age like a manakete (very slowly).


End file.
